New Ideas...

One of my favorite emails I get is from Springwise.com:

Flexible condos can be reconfigured and resized
	It's a fact of life that people's needs change over time, and that's as true in housing as any other industry. Aiming to create condominiums that are flexible enough to accommodate some of that change, Canadian architectural firm Sweeny Sterling Finlayson & Co. has created FlexNatür — a new, modular design for living spaces that allows them to adapt when needed. READ MORE...

For USD 60 a year, magazine delivers monthly works of art
	The subscription model continues to gain popularity among convenience-minded consumers. However, it's rare that we see the concept applied to more high-minded goods. Now, however, Papirmasse is a venture from Canada that delivers 12 pieces of art throughout the year for just USD 60. READ MORE...

Game creates a playable virtual world controlled by tweets
	There's no doubt that technology continues to provide ever-more immersive gaming environments, with the latest graphics and gameplay offering unparralled realism. A new game called Tweetland however, has plans to harness technology to build a gaming environment determined by social networking activity. READ MORE...

A marketplace for redesigned notebook covers
	As product customization becomes ever more popular with consumers, it is inevitable that items as personal as notebooks are also being altered to suit individual tastes. Rather than fighting this in an effort to preserve their classic black finish, Moleskine have recently launched a marketplace that embraces artists’ interpretations and redesigns of their notebooks. READ MORE...

Furniture units bring kitchens and showers to the great outdoors
	Outdoor dining experiences have often graced our virtual pages, with recent examples including Buitengewoon In Het Land and Butler For Hire’s picnic service. But up until now we’ve never seen anything like WWOO’s outdoor kitchen units, which let the DIY diner create a unique outdoor eating experience. READ MORE...

Simple web page creator highlights businesses' social networks
	Companies offering personalized web page creation for small businesses and individuals are nothing new. However, the pages created by Central.ly stand out from the crowd. With an emphasis on simplicity, the site creates image-based web pages that focus on linking to pre-existing social media channels. READ MORE...

App lets users visualize new building developments in situ
	Whilst we may still be some way off apps that let us see into the future, UK-based Deliverance Software’s new app — Walkabout3d — aims to provide just that. The app’s 3D panoramas can give users a glimpse of how their surrounding may appear once planned building projects have reached their completion. READ MORE...

Online hosiery store offers subscription-based deliveries
	We’ve already seen the subscription model applied to a wealth of various industries, from indie song playlists, limited edition art, lip balms, and even to Swedish kitchen cloths. More in the vein of Manpacks and Panty by Post however, we recently came across Hoseanna, a US-based service delivering hosiery to their subscribers. READ MORE...

Renault connect offline approval to online Facebook “liking”
	Many brands have struggled when it comes to converting a popular offline presence into online recognition. Hoping to remove any practical barriers to this process, and encourage instant online appreciation, Renault were displaying their innovative Facebook share pillars at the recent AutoRAI Amsterdam Motorshow. READ MORE...

Restaurants pitched against each other in online game
	Is there anything that can’t be made into a game? Recently we saw Chromaroma gamifying London’s public transport system, and now we’ve discovered Tasty Duel. Through the website, the questions “where shall we eat tonight?”, or “which restaurant do you prefer” can now be answered through a series of online duels. READ MORE...

Viewers customize interactive Facebook-based “Social Film”

When it comes to entertainment, regular readers of Springwise may have noticed a growing trend whereby user interactivity is not only encouraged, but is made compulsory in order to reveal certain content. Recently we spotted Bluebrain’s location-based album, and now we’ve discovered Murmur’s “Social Film” — Him, Her and Them — which relies on the viewer/user to alter the viewing experience for their Facebook friends. READ MORE...

Homemade meals delivered directly to students’ doors

Having recently written about the gourmet dining available from Air France’s roving New York truck, we now turn our attention to the other end of the food quality scale: student dining. Not known for being high on nutritional value, University student meals often pale in comparison to those once cooked at home. Hoping to bring a little of that home comfort and healthy eating back onto campus, we’ve now discovered US-based GW Bites. READ MORE...

Reviews help ensure quality on crowdsourced translation site
	Regular readers may remember myGengo, a Japanese site that taps the native-speaking crowds for online translation. Now operating on much the same principle is MyTranslation, which adds reviews to help ensure the quality of translated work. READ MORE...

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Tag Lines

Fun little quiz with a lesson from Villing & Company:

Short or Long Taglines? Maybe That’s Not Even the Right Question.

Written by:
Lesley Langfeldt

Let’s have some fun and play a game. Take a guess. What brand does each of these taglines belong to? (Answers at the end of this article.)

1. When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
2. Rethink possible.
3. Drive one.
4. Moving forward.
5. Just do it.
6. 15 minutes can save you 15 percent or more on car insurance.
7. Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.
8. The biggest little city in the world.
9. What happens in _____, stays in _____.
10. A different kind of company. A different kind of car.
11. Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.
12. The best part of wakin’ up is _______ in your cup.
13. Good to the last drop.
14. Don’t leave home without it.
15. We try harder.
16. Tastes great, less filling.
17. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
18. Pursuing perfection.
19. Get there.
20. For life.

Well, how many did you get right? (The answers are below.) Now count how many short ones (for this instance, 5 words or less) you got right versus the longer ones. In many cases, the longer ones have been more memorable — many of them have made the “most memorable taglines” lists. Lately though, it seems that more and more companies are turning to shorter (3 words or less) taglines for their brands. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying longer taglines are always better than shorter ones. (Did anyone get number five wrong? I didn’t think so.) What I am saying is that regardless of the length, a tagline needs to make a meaningful connection with the target audience. Usually that involves provoking some kind of emotion, which is quite often much more difficult with three words than it might be with seven or more.

Take two of the examples above. The first one was FedEx. Their current tagline though is “We Understand.” Which of these two taglines has more emotion built in? And then there is American Express. Their current tagline is “Take charge.” I personally think their previous tagline (#14 in the list above) was more emotional.

So next time you go looking for a new tagline for your brand, instead of considering the number of words, consider the emotional and memorability factors you want it to achieve with your audience. Most importantly, don’t overlook the strategic issues. Does the tagline accurately reflect your positioning and message strategies?

When it comes to taglines, sometimes less really is more. Sometimes it isn’t.

Answers:

1. FedEx
2. AT&T
3. Ford
4. Toyota
5. Nike
6. Geico
7. M&M’s
8. Reno, Nevada
9. Las Vegas
10. Saturn
11. Secret deodorant
12. Folgers
13. Maxwell House
14. American Express
15. Avis
16. Miller Lite
17. Timex
18. Lexus
19. Goodyear
20. Volvo

If you would like to receive your own personal "subscription" to Villing & Company’s News & Views, click here to get free updates by e-mail or RSS. If you prefer to get updates on Facebook, visit the Villing Facebook Page and click the "Like" button next to our name.

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Ideas and Critics

They both change the world.

From Seth Godin this week:

Interpreting criticism

Heartfelt criticism of your idea or your art is usually right (except when it isn't...)

Check out this letter from the publisher of a magazine you've never heard of to the founder of a little magazine called Readers Digest:

But, personally, I don't see how you will be able to get enough subscribers to support it. It is expensive for its size. It isn't illustrated... I have my doubts about the undertaking as a publishing venture.

Of course, he was right--given his assumptions. And that's the except part.

Criticism of your idea is usually based on assumptions about the world as it is. Jackson Pollock could never have made it as an painter in the world as it was. And Harry Potter was rejected by just about everyone because for it to succeed the way kids read would have to change.

The useful element of this sort of criticism isn't that the fact that people in the status quo don't like your idea. Of course they don't. The interesting question is: what about the world as it is would have to change for your idea to be important?

In the case of Readers Digest, the key thing that changed was the makeup of who was reading magazines. Most of the people (and it was a lot of people) who subscribed to the Digest didn't read other magazines. And so comparing to other magazines made no sense, except to say, "this is so different from other magazines, the only way you're going to succeed is by selling it to millions of people who don't read those magazines." And Starbucks had no chance if they were going to focus on the sort of person who bought coffee at Dunkin Donuts or a diner, and the iPad couldn't possibly succeed if people were content to use computers the way they were already using them.

Keep that in mind the next time a gatekeeper or successful tastemaker explains why you're going to fail.

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Fun Research

Need an excuse to rent a movie?

This is from MarketingProfs.com:

How to Get Inside Your Target Audience's Head

It's one thing to market to people just like you. But what if you have nothing in common with your target audience? How do you get inside their head? In The Experience Effect, Jim Joseph offers a practical suggestion: "Read a book or go to a movie that depicts the customer—especially a book or movie that the target marketing is embracing," he says. "You'll get an incredible glimpse into their lives, their emotions, and their preferences."

When Joseph—then a single man in his twenties—began marketing Johnson's Baby Shampoo, he knew nothing about babies. He'd never even held one in his arms.

"So like every other new-mom-to-be," he says, "I read the classic book What to Expect When You're Expecting to see for myself what pregnant women are thinking about, worrying about, and purchasing as they go through the cycles of their pregnancy and as they make decisions for their baby's arrival."

But that's not all. When his pregnant friends would go to the doctor for a check-up, Joseph would tag along to observe mothers interacting with their newborns in the waiting room.

He adopted a similar approach when marketing to another demographic he didn't fit. "I used to watch Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210 religiously when I was a brand manager on Clean & Clear teen skin care at Johnson & Johnson so that I could learn about teenage girls and their lives."

Now the question: What can pop culture teach you about your audience?

The Po!nt: "Good marketing comes from turning theory into reality," writes Joseph, "so let's make our consumers real people, not just a collection of data."

Source: The Experience Effect.

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Fresh Ideas

This is from Springwise.com:

Carvertising campaign rewards drivers with gas
Automotive / Marketing & advertising

In a carvertising campaign from Singapore shopping magazine Chic
and Chevron's Caltex gas brand, drivers get gasoline worth SGD 50
in exchange for having an advertising decal affixed to their cars.

Chicken-sitting service for (sub)urban flocks
Homes & housing

Just Us Hens is a Portland-based venture dedicated to tending
local hens when their owners go away on holiday. The service
includes twice daily visits to feed the birds and let them out and in.

Trip-planning site helps find globetrotting companions
Tourism & travel / Life hacks

Globetrooper lets world travellers find like-minded companions to
share a jointly planned group trip. Trip ideas on the site can be ranked
according to difficulty, culture shock, remoteness and risk.

Tide helps disaster victims with free laundry services
Non-profit, social cause / Marketing & advertising

Inspired by the Hurricane Katrina disaster five years ago, detergent
brand Tide's Loads of Hope program is a mobile laundry service that
provides clothes-washing facilities to families affected by disaster.

Brand-sponsored being space for creatives
Marketing & advertising

Wix Lounge in Manhattan is a being space for creative professionals.
It's equipped with workstations, wifi and comfy seating. Software
developer Wix will host events there such as web design workshops.

Festival jackets & bags made from abandoned tents
Style & design / Eco & sustainability / Fashion & beauty

WiTHiNTENT in the UK salvages the fabric from tents abandoned
at music festivals and uses it to create rainproof hoodies, ponchos,
pac-a-macs and bags for the festival market.

Contest chooses apps to help fight childhood obesity
Government / Lifestyle & leisure / Telecom & mobile

The US Department of Agriculture has challenged game designers
and other software developers to come up with applications that
deliver nutrition and health concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Five businesses that look to the crowds for content
Marketing & advertising / Entertainment / Media & publishing

Crowdsourced business names, a news site where readers pick
the stories, decision advice via social networks, crowdcasting tools
for radio, and a TV show where viewers decide what happens next.

Urban campground to be crowd-funded & managed
Lifestyle & leisure / Eco & sustainability

Stadscamping Zwolle is launching a sustainable urban campground
that will be funded and managed by members. A EUR 35 fee covers
two nights stay plus voting rights on how the camp should be run.

Home energy monitor for less than $30
Eco & sustainability / Style & design

Consumers wishing to monitor their electricity use plug an appliance
into a Belkin Conserve Insight and use it as normal for a while.
Belkin's device will detail the running cost in watts, money and CO2.

Trial gear and showers for runners at Adidas store
Retail / Lifestyle & leisure / Marketing & advertising

Sports brand Adidas has a store in Tokyo that doubles as an urban
running club. There are shower cubicles and lockers for rent, plus
expert advisers who will provide tips and lend out shoes and clothing.

'Mobs' donate elbow grease to sustainable farms
Eco & sustainability / Food & beverage

The Crop Mob is a US organisation through which volunteers
descend on one lucky sustainable farm each month, and set
about tasks it would take the farmers months to complete alone.

Device lets workers exercise at their desks
Lifestyle & leisure

The DeskMate from New York-based Compactix can be used to burn
calories, decrease fatigue, flex muscles and relieve stress, even while
simultaneously typing, reading or talking on the phone.

Letting consumers choose their own phone number
Telecom & mobile

Name Your Number works with mobile operators internationally
to provide custom numbers based on existing numbers, dates,
lucky numbers or alphanumeric matches to a significant word.

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Getting Started in this Crazy Business

The radio stations I work for sometimes use interns and this year we hired two of them full-time.

Except two weeks ago we fired one of them. She wasn't cutting it. Her job required her to pay attention to details and she wasn't.

Drew recently wrote a bit of advice for college grads:

College graduates -- stop listening to your parents and professors!

Posted: 14 Jun 2010 08:12 PM PDT

At least stop listening to those parents and professors who still believe it's 1980.

As you might imagine...this is the time of year when we get bombarded with resumes, calls and college graduate drop ins -- all looking for their first job. I remember how frustrating my search was. Everyone wanted someone with experience...which of course, no one would give me!

I've spoken to several college classes and many a recent grad over the past couple months and I can tell you without a doubt that most of them are going about finding a job all wrong.

And sadly, this is due to the tutelage of their well meaning parents and some out of touch professors.

Entry level jobs are not won with marbled resume paper and cover letters that tell employers how much you like people. And...you should not tell me that you're going to call to schedule an appointment. That's sort of my job. If I want to actually meet you. And seriously -- spell check.

I wrote a post outlining what I would do if I were looking for a marketing job today. (click on the link to check it out) Even if you aren't interested in marketing -- most of it still applies.

But bottom line -- you need to get our attention. And the standard resume/cover letter combo isn't going to cut it. You have to do something to stand out, to be noticed and most important -- to be remembered.

The photo above is a little something I got in the mail from job seeker Kurt Henderson. The copy is clever -- he acknowledges that time is money and he'd like a little bit of my time. He did several other things right. But...the bottom line, I've had this orange envelope (and the dollar) on my desk for about a month. I need to start talking to some entry level type folks. Guess who is getting my first call?

And in fairness -- not everything your parents tell you is out of date. Handwritten thank you notes never go out of style. Neither does doing your homework.

Good luck finding that elusive job. I promise, you'll never work as hard to get one as you will this first time out.

P.S. Check out this free e-book aimed at grads!

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Unexpected Innovation

from Mediapost:

Street-level Retail Innovation In Mexico City

Innovation. The mere word conjures up images of serious-looking scientists clad in crisp, all-white jumpsuits working in an impossibly sterile lab, tinkering with the latest gene-splicing method that promises the cancer cure. Engineers putting the final touches on a clay model of the latest hybrid vehicle, and programmers brainstorming on software platform and apps for the latest touch screen tablet gadget, in response to Apple's iPad.

This is how we commonly view innovation, correlating it directly with R&D, often overlooking the fact that innovation is not the exclusive domain of the developed economies and can come from any corner of the planet.

"Necessity is the mother of all innovations" and the trigger point to innovate is fundamentally human. This can be equally found in the high-tech labs of Tel Aviv and Tallinn, Seoul or Silicon Valley, as well as on the streets of a mega-metropolis like Mexico City, in the mud villages of sub-Saharan Africa, or deep in the tropical rainforest of Borneo. The latter category is best described as street-level innovation.

While in Mexico City recently, I was enjoying an al fresco lunch in the Art Deco-adorned neighborhood of Condesa, when a fruit vendor caught my attention. His mobile fruit stand-cum-retail device was a wooden plank placed on a wheelbarrow. A glass-enclosed box displayed jicama and all the other tropical fruits, with rows of plastic containers for the salsas, lime and condiments, and a "Jicaleta" sign adorned the front. The first hint of innovation, a hybrid combo of "jicama" and "piruleta" (Spanish for lollipop). And to top it off; customers were given little Styrofoam saucers to keep the sauce from dripping. Street-level innovation at its best!

Later, while sitting in traffic at a busy intersection, I noticed a street vendor walking between the long lines of cars. He was selling water, soda, candy, cigarettes and snacks. It seemed like a lot to carry at first glance. But instead of doing a nifty balancing act, he donned a fisherman's vest with multiple pockets for all the different merchandise. A convenience store on foot.

I glanced across the other side and saw a man in a clown's suit, replete with a red nose, showing off his juggling prowess. An instant entertainment to take your mind off of gridlock, all for some small change.

And while some people from the developed world will argue that such sights are displays of urban poverty, I beg to differ, as this is human ingenuity finding solutions for daily challenges. Solutions that don't go unnoticed by the international corporate world.

During the Asian crises in late 1990s, Unilever, after having observed Indonesia's fragmented retail landscape of small street-side convenience kiosks across the country, decided that was the most effective distribution channel to reach the masses. It launched "micro packaging," pushing everything from body wash to shampoo, detergent and cooking oil in small sachets. The profit margins may also have been "mini"-sized, but the world's largest archipelago with over 220 million people made up for it in volume, handsomely.

It is therefore prudent for any marketer, advertiser and brand-builder to understand the local culture and habits, including the retail landscape. And as in the case of the "Jicaleta" wheelbarrow, salsa and other food-related brands might consider using these unique mobile retail devices and branding them accordingly.

Dian Hasan is a San-Diego based brand storyteller and business innovator at MindCode, a U.S.-based branding, innovation and consumer research company. He has worked with MindCode clients in the consumers goods, retail, hospitality and tourism industries in the U.S., Mexico and Argentina.

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Fresh Ideas

I get a weekly update from Springwise. Here's the latest:

Health care by monthly membership
Life hacks / Government

Seattle's Qliance uses a health care model resembling a fitness club
membership: Members have unrestricted access to its clinicians and
services for a monthly fee of between USD 44 and USD 129.

Gardening service sends seeds when it's time to plant
Lifestyle & leisure / Food & beverage / Homes & housing

SproutRobot generates a personalised planting calendar for users
based on historical weather data for where they live. Seeds and
instructions can then be delivered according to that schedule.

No-darn repair kit breathes new life into worn garments
Eco & sustainability / Fashion & beauty / Style & design

Woolfiller repairs holes and hides stains in woollen jumpers,
cardigans, jackets and carpets, by causing the original and patching
wool to bond - simply by pricking both with needles.

South African fair trade bracelets for Dutch soccer fans
Non-profit, social cause / Fashion & beauty / Style & design

The Orange Bracelet, made of beads in the Netherlands' national
colour plus the rainbow colours of South Africa, is a locally made,
fair-trade alternative to mass-produced World Cup merchandising.

Fans buy shares to fund comic books
Media & publishing

Belgian comic book publisher Sandawe relies on crowdfunding to
select and finance new titles. Authors display artwork and reveal plot
summaries, hoping to excite the interest of potential investors.

Social media check-ins earn loyalty program rewards
Tourism & travel / Marketing & advertising

When users sync their various location-based social networking and
check-in services with Topguest, they get to qualify for an array of
hotel and airline travel and hospitality rewards.

Consumers' event plans matched with professionals
Lifestyle & leisure / Marketing & advertising

EventNow connects people planning an event or party with
pre-screened event service providers who compete for their business.
It's free for consumers; vendors pay for each matched lead.

Hotel's chef service includes trip to farmers' market
Food & beverage / Tourism & travel

At the Vitale in San Francisco, guests may call upon the hotel's chef
to help them choose and buy ingredients at the nearby farmers' market.
He'll then help them prepare the resulting meal - or do it all for them.

Tablet adds digital data to cemetery headstones
Lifestyle & leisure

RosettaStone is a stone tablet that can be attached to new or existing
gravestones. Engraved symbols and a built-in microchip carry data
about the deceased's life, to be accessed using normal mobile devices.

Five (more) businesses selling personalised products
Retail / Fashion & beauty / Style & design

Childrens' audiobooks narrated by their parents, stuffed animals that
caricature their owners, and online software allowing users to design
their own quilts, ski livery, and map-based jewellery.

Key ring delivers uber-premium freebies for life
Marketing & advertising

Only available for purchase to companies as a corporate gift for
favoured clients and customers, the Key-2 Luxury key ring grants its
recipients access to a host of VIP privileges for the rest of their lives.

Rainwater harvesting system stores enough for a year
Non-profit, social cause / Eco & sustainability

Winner of this year's Energy Globe World Award, Aakash Ganga is a
sustainable system that channels rooftop rainwater from every house
in a village into a network of underground reservoirs.

Thermoelectric wellies charge festival-goers' phones
Eco & sustainability / Lifestyle & leisure

Orange Power Wellies feature a phone charger that sources power
from the heat produced while the boot wearers trudge through
festival mud. Dancing generates an extra boost.

An instant storefront for any website or blog
Retail / Media & publishing

Vendr seamlessly adds storefront capabilities to any website or
blog with just a few lines of code. A "Store" button executes a
lightbox-effect store with integrated payment and management tools.

Eco-minded restaurant lists carbon footprint of dishes
Eco & sustainability / Food & beverage

Along with using recycled furnishings, local ingredients, energy-
efficient equipment and renewable power, vegetarian restaurant chain
Otarian publishes the full carbon footprint of all items on its menu.

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The Lie

There are folks that I know who are always looking for that "one thing" that will change their lives. It's a shortcut, a way to beat the system, to me it looks like a "get rich quick scheme", with the emphasis on "scheme".

Seth Godin wrote about this yesterday:

Hope and the magic lottery

Entrepreneurial hope is essential. It gets us over the hump and through the dip. There's a variety of this hope, though, that's far more damaging than helpful.

This is the hope of the magic lottery ticket.

A fledgling entrepreneur ambushes a venture capitalist who just appeared on a panel. "Excuse me," she says, then launches into a two, then six and eventually twenty minute pitch that will never (sorry, never) lead to the VC saying, "Great, here's a check for $2 million on your terms."

Or the fledgling author, the one who has been turned down by ten agents and then copies his manuscript and fedexes it to twenty large publishing houses--what is he hoping for, exactly? Perhaps he's hoping to win the magic lottery, to be the one piece of slush chosen out of a million (literally a million!) that goes on to be published and revered.

You deserve better than the dashed hopes of a magic lottery.

There's a hard work alternative to the magic lottery, one in which you can incrementally lay the groundwork and integrate into the system you say you want to work with. And yet instead of doing that work, our instinct is to demonize the person that wants to take away our ticket, to confuse the math of the situation (there are very few glass slippers available) with someone trying to slam the door in your faith/face.

You can either work yourself to point where you don't need the transom, or you can play a different game altogether, but throwing your stuff over the transom isn't worthy of the work you've done so far.

Starbucks didn't become Starbucks by getting discovered by Oprah Winfrey or being blessed by Warren Buffet when they only had a few stores. No, they plugged along. They raised bits of money here and there, flirted with disaster, added one store and then another, tweaked and measured and improved and repeated. Day by day, they dripped their way to success. No magic lottery.

What chance is there that Mark Cuban or Carlos Slim is going to agree to be your mentor, to open all doors and give you a shortcut to the top? Better, I think, to avoid wasting a moment of your time hoping for a fairy godmother. You're in a hurry and this is a dead end.

When someone encourages you to avoid the magic lottery, they're not criticizing your idea nor are they trying to shatter your faith or take away your hope. Instead, they're pointing out that shortcuts are rarely dependable (or particularly short) and that instead, perhaps, you should follow the longer, more deliberate, less magical path if you truly want to succeed.

If your business or your music or your art or your project is truly worth your energy and your passion, then don't sell it short by putting its future into a lottery ticket.

Here's another way to think about it: delight the audience you already have, amaze the customers you can already reach, dazzle the small investors who already trust you enough to listen to you. Take the permission you have and work your way up. Leaps look good in the movies, but in fact, success is mostly about finding a path and walking it one step at a time.

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The Price of a Solution

Imagine naming your price and having someone pay it without negotiating.

It all depends on what you are selling.

From Seth Godin's blog last week:

Hourly work vs. linchpin work

There's a gulf between hourly work and linchpin work.

You should pay people by the hour when there are available substitutes. When you rely on freelancers you can put a value on their time based on what the market is paying. If there are six podiatrists in town, and all can heal your foot, the going rate is based on their time and effort, not on the lifetime use of your foot.

On the other hand, if there are no short term substitutes, then you don't pay what the market will bear, instead you pay what someone is worth. Big difference.

Consider, for example, someone putting together a series of concerts for which they intend to sell subscriptions or even have the musicians sell tickets.

They could seek out pretty good musicians and imagine that paying them $500 or more per hour is very fair compensation. After all, that's more than a podiatrist gets, and she gives you back the use of your foot.

But when they find a linchpin, someone who will either make it easier for them to sell subscriptions or will bring an audience with them, the question isn't how much time it took for the musician to do her set, the question is what did she bring in terms of value, right? An indispensable person, someone with a rare asset, has few substitutes and an hourly rate makes a lot less sense.

So, if a musician is going to sell 300 subscriptions for you and you earn $200 a subscription from that effort, that person just added $6,000 worth of value. Who cares if it took a minute or a day? What's on the table is who gets what portion of the value added...

I had a college professor who did engineering consulting. A brand new office tower in Boston had a serious problem--there was a brown stain coming through the drywall, (all of the drywall) no matter how much stain killer they used. In a forty story building, if you have to rip out all the drywall, this is a multi-million dollar disaster. They had exhausted all possibilities and were a day away from tearing out everything and taking a loss. They hired Henry in a last-ditch effort to solve the problem. He looked at the walls and said, "I think I can work out a solution, but it will cost you $45,000 if I succeed." They instantly signed on, because if he succeeded, the project would be saved.

Henry asked for a pencil and paper and wrote the name of a common hardware store chemical and handed it to them. "Here, this will work." And then he billed them $45,000. That's quite an hourly wage. It's also quite a bargain.

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